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Category Archives: Album Rescue Project

As promised, I’m continuing my examination of the photos in the Album Rescue Project. I’ve created a spreadsheet of all of the codes written on the photos, to make them easier to group. My hope is to interpret what at least some of the codes mean because this may provide further clues as to the identities of those pictured in the album.

I have come up with a new theory about the codes and who wrote them. My hunch is that the album’s star–the girl featured in most of the album’s photos–was the original owner of the albums and that she wrote a lot of the captions. However, I don’t think she necessarily also wrote the codes. My reasons for this: the handwriting is slightly different in the codes than in the captions; the codes are written in ink and almost all of the captions are in pencil; some of the photos have multiple codes. My thinking is that a subsequent possessor of the albums started coding the photos in order to organize them either for divvying up among family members or for selling. Many, many of the albums’ original photos were no longer in the albums when I purchased them. A friend of mine suggested that a previous owner may have sold some of the photos individually before offloading the albums.

On to the codes themselves. I’m starting with the letter ‘B.’ No ‘A’s were used in the codes. Below are the photos incorporating the letter ‘B’ in some way. There are a variety of subjects portrayed. I think codes incorporating ‘B,’ ‘2B,’ ‘3B’ and ‘BB’ all stand for different things.

Photo 73 — 2B-1917/F-1917 (Aunt Bert & Hazel Walters)

Photo 79 — 2B-1918

Photo 103 — 2B-1919

Photo 44 — 3B-1918

Photo 45 — 3B-1917

Photo 132 — 3B-1920

Photo 133 — 3B-1920

Photo 101 — B-1918

Photo 20 — BB-1920 (Red Bridge Park)

I think that ‘2B’ and ‘3B’ are particular to the locations pictured. ‘3B’ photos in particular seem to be from some sort of summer destination or gathering spot. Regarding ‘BB,’ I don’t think it is necessarily particular to the subject of Red Bridge Park as there are other photos from that park without a code using ‘BB.’

Well, with this post we’ve reached the end of Album 2. There’s no magic clue that reveals the album’s past in these last few photos, but every little tidbit helps and I still have steps I can take to try and track down the family to whom this album belongs. Before we do that though, here are the last photos:

Photo 60

I’m not sure if the photo above is supposed to be of the woman in the background hanging her laundry (she does appear to realize that her photo is being taken) or of the contraption in the foreground…

There is some interesting information printed on the back:

Reverse of Photo 60

This photo was printed on Kodak Velo (or Velox) Paper according to the stamp on the back. I found this information on Velox prints, which helps to date the photo.

We’re back at a dam (I think) in the next photo:

Photo 61

Love the vehicles in the image above. I don’t see a sign identifying this location, unfortunately. Anyone recognize it?

Photo 62

The guy pictured above looks pretty young — what do you think, is this a high school portrait?

Glue spots foil us in discovering more:

Reverse of Photo 62

There was something written/stamped on the back, but it’s obscured now by glue and paper from where it was adhered to an album page. Bah.

Photo 63 is a blast from the past:

Photo 63

That’s our star at a much earlier age in a photo that has the same coding as used on most photos in Album 1. Check out the dude snoozing on the hammock in the background. He inspired the inscription on the back:

Reverse of Photo 63

It simply says “Wake up.” I’ll get into my reasons why in a future post, but I’m 90% positive that the S in the above code stands for Shippensburg.

Here is the final photo of the album, which also appears to be much older than the rest of the photos in Album 2:

Photo 64

This photo has Shippensburg written on the front and another notation on the back:

Reverse of Photo 64

It’s perplexing that there are four people pictured in the photo, but only two identified on the back. Or are those the names of the folks to whom the photo was given? I’m having trouble reading the first name, but the second one appears to be Viola. I don’t recognize any of the kids in this photo from other images in either album.

Stay tuned for future posts where I try to divine further information from what we’ve seen so far. This ain’t over yet!

Some very intriguing images in this next set, as we near the end of the second album:

Photo 53

I recognize at least one person in the photo above. The gentleman front and center was featured several times in Album 1 including here and here (also here). My guess is that’s our star’s dad. Who are the women? Several women also were featured in Album 1. For instance, her and her. Are they in the photo above? Unfortunately, there are no notations on the above photo to offer further clues.

I think the guy below is holding tire. There is a pump in the foreground:

Photo 54

There is a clue on the back of his photo:

Reverse of Photo 54

This photo was printed at Sweigart’s in York, Pennsylvania! You know that I went straight to Google with that little tidbit. What luck! There’s is a web page devoted to this photography shop on a web site about preserving York’s history! How neat to get the back story. The information may prove helpful in dating this photo.

Not only that, but I also found a web page on the same site about a dam near York. Could Indian Rock Dam be that pictured in yesterday’s post? Hmmm… the one in yesterday’s post looks too wide to be Indian Rock Dam. Damn!

I know we were just talking about York, but I think this might be Harrisburg, based on an image search on Google… Anyone know?

Photo 57 is a slightly different view of the same skyline:

Photo 57

Photo 58 is a nifty shot of a ferry either coming into a dock or departing from one.

Photo 58

I’ve tried to read the name of the boat without any luck. Bummer!

Photo 59 is equally interesting. At first, I thought the contraption on the right was some type of plane. On closer inspection, you can see that it’s a tower somehow anchored into the surf. I almost wonder if it’s a type of amusement ride — maybe swings over the water? Anyone ever see anything like this before?